Friday, 27 April 2012

Carol Feller, the lovely woman behind Stolen Stitches designs has been celebrating the success of her collaboration with Fyberspates with a blog tour and it is our turn to talk about why we love the book so much.

Firstly, the book is laid out with the kind of clear and informative directions that fans of Carol have come to know and trust and includes close up photos and details of all the knitted items. Patterns are written and charted where appropriate and there's an item in here for every season.

The collection includes 3 garments and 4 accessories, all knit from Fyberspates Scrumptious yarn in a range of weights from lace weight right up to chunky. The book includes the following designs:

Ignus - Knitted in Scrumptious Aran. This hip length tunic has delicate cable details that complement the smooth flattering shape. Knit from the top down, with raglan shoulder shaping, the side cable detail has decreases worked down each side for smooth shaping.

Bakersville - Knitted in Scrumptious 4ply/Sport. This hooded cardigan is knitted from the top down. It features a hidden pocket and i-cord edging.

Taupo - Knitted in Scrumptious Chunky. The unusual construction of this cap-sleeved cardigan makes this a very fun knit. Worked from side to side starting at the center of the back, curvy short row hip shaping, clever side joining and short row sleeve caps can introduce you to several new techniques. Vertical accent rows add visual interest and help make this a very flattering knit.

Flama - Knitted in either Scrumptious Lace or 4ply/Sport. Simple and effective, this shawl has a delicate central lace panel and garter stitch outer panels. Worked from the bottom up, optional beads are added to the lace central panel. They add weight and sparkle to the shawl.

Haruna Gloves & Haruna Hat - Knitted in Scrumptious DK/Worsted. These simple gloves have a little flair at the wrist with a decorative gather and faux bobble buttons. Wrist fastens using a snap to ensure a perfect fit. A gathered edge and garter stitch detail create an off centre interest for this hat. Knit in the round from the bottom up, the head band is fastened using a snap for a perfect fit.

Vesuvius - Knitted in Scrumptious DK/Worsted. A cowl is the perfect winter accessory, and an eternity cowl is twice as good! Wrap it twice around your neck you’ll keep yourself warm and look stylish at the same time! Knit in the round, this simple dropped stitch pattern creates a lovely textured cowl.

Here at Fyberspates we've been fans of Carol for some time and so it's been great to see the enormous positive reaction the book has enjoyed. There have been lots of knitalongs both in the Fyberspates and Stolen Stitches group on Ravelry with lots of inspiration for colour choices and styling. You can buy a hard copy of Scrumptious Knits here at the shop or get the e-version on Carol's own site here.

To celebrate the success of Scrumptious Knits, we are hosting a competition here on the blog. You can win 2 skeins of Scrumptious 4ply, enough to make the Flama shawl, in a colourway of your choice. All you have to do is leave a comment on the blog telling us which colour you would knit the Flama shawl in. Be sure to enter before 10th May 2012 as the winner will be selected by random number generator here on the blog on Friday the 11th May 2012. Good luck!

Next on the Scrumptious Knits Blog Tour is Romi Hill so be sure to pop along and see what Romi thinks of the collection.

Wednesday, 25 April 2012

We just wanted to remind you that you will find us at Wonderwool in Builth Wells, Wales and couldn't resist teasing with some pictures of some of the many, many treasures you can expect to find there.

We are exhibiting on both days and will be taking all of our Scrumptious range, including the pattern collections, the new Ysolda colour range and book, as well as our lovely hand dyes. Be sure to come and say hello and check out all the lovely products that we have on offer especially as we have dyed up our biggest batch of yarns for an event to date and they look absolutely brilliant.

The event takes placeover the weekend of the 28th to 29 April 2012 and to buy tickets and see more information, you can visit the WonderWool website.

Monday, 23 April 2012

A little while ago we told you all about the third annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week and the fabulous prizes that we have donated. Well, it's here and we have all been enjoying reading the wonderful posts and contributions towards this international event. It is so inspiring to see what people have come with from the topic prompts.

If you want to join in, it's still not to late. Simply go to the Eskimimi Makes Blog the hosting site for this event to find more information. If you would like to readalong, it's really easy to do. Using your usual search engine, e.g. Google, type in one of the tags below to find all the entries that have been tagged for that day.

There's also a Ravelry Group that's run by the organisers of theKnitting and Crochet Blog Week, so you can check out all the up to date chatter there too. Enjoy!

Saturday, 21 April 2012

We have spotted another fantastic design in Fyberspates yarn, this time our lustrous Nef Lace. Nef Lace is 1312 yards of a stunning blend of 70% Alpaca, 20% Silk, 10% Cashmere so will knit up to give beautiful drape and softness. This delicate scarf only uses 1 skein and so is ideal for some stash busting or a special purchase if you've been dying to try out this yarn.

The scarf was designed for a regular feature in Simply Knitting magazine called 'Have a Ball' which is a challenge to design stashbusting pieces with just 1 100g skein. It features a chevron lace pattern created by a simple four-row lace repeat. The scarf is designed by Lynne Tuck and can be found in this month's issue of Simply Knitting Magazine (Issue 92, May 2012). Be sure to grab your copy at your local newsagents or yarn shop and you can purchase Nef Lace on the shop site.

Wednesday, 18 April 2012

The Corlynna Cardigan by Belinda Boaden has been a great success from our Scrumptious Baby Collection. There's been lots of chatter about this collection in the Fyberspates group on Ravelry so do hop on over if you haven't already- I might be biased but it's an absolutely fab group.

Jen Arnall-Culliford has just made a tutorial to help you with the beautiful Cluster Stitch pattern that is featured on both the cardigan, leg warmers and the matching hat. This beautiful set knits up in no time and features Fyberspates Scrumptious 4 ply, a great superwash luxury yarn for little ones. Now with a superb tutorial (great work Jen), you really will have the best dressed little one!

You can get your copy of The Scrumptious Baby Collection and Scrumptious yarn on the Fyberspates shop.

Monday, 16 April 2012

In this months issue of Let's Get Crafting magazine you will find us featured on their yarn shopping page. The issue was released on 13th April 2012 and features our Blue Faced Leicester silk lace weight. The skeins come in 800m hanks and are priced at £15. These skeins are perfect for delicate shawls and scarves as we hope the weather cheers up a bit for Spring.

Tuesday, 10 April 2012

We had so much fun at the end of last month because we travelled to Cologne, Germanyfor the Handarbeit event. This is a huge show for wholesalers and traders and it was the first time that we had taken part so we were understandably a little bit nervous about what to expect. We needn't have worried-we had an absolutely fab time!

The first thing that was really noticeable was the standard of professionalism around the entire event: from the organisation to the way each stand was kitted out. There were lighting setups and the organisers wore suits and really knew their stuff. It would have been slightly intimidating if it were not for how much fun we were all having.

Handarbeit attracts crowds from all over Europe, Russia and the US and is probably one of the biggest shows in terms of the amount of people who visit every year. We were kept really busy giving out our sample packs and chatting to potential new suppliers. One of the nicest things was how many people commented on the fact that we were knitting on the stand, it seemed to reassure people that we really knew what we were talking about (which of course we do!)

The other fabulous thing about the whole event was that we got to share a stand with the Natural Dye Studio and Mr Wool was there too. So we naturally took full advantage of all the local places to eat and drink. We munched on lots of cake, beer and sausages and it was absolutely marvellous!

Do not worry if you have missed the opportunity to see us as we will be at Wonderwool this month and as always you can find all our products in the Fyberspates shop.

Friday, 6 April 2012

It seems we've only just got back from Germany and already we're planning our next trip. This time though we won't need passports as we're going to Wonderwool in Builth Wells, Wales. This is the seventh year that the event has ran and as before promises to offer a range of Welsh and English artisan products. The event takes placeover the weekend of the 28th to 29 April 2012 and to buy tickets and see more information, you can visit the website.

The show is always a great showcase of handicrafts and textiles and there will be workshops and events on both days. Be sure to bring your carrier bags though because carrier bags of any description - paper or plastic, can no longer be given free of charge with purchased good in Wales due to the nationwide single use carrier bag policy.

Once again we will be exhibiting on both days and as always will be taking all of our Scrumptious range, including the pattern collections, the new Ysolda colour range and book, as well as our lovely hand dyes. Be sure to come and say hello and check out all the lovely products that we have on offer especially as we're planning a massive display of hand dyed yarns- you have been warned so get saving those pennies!

Tuesday, 3 April 2012

At Fyberspates we are proud to support the third annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week that is being hosted by the Eskimimi Makes Blog.The event will take place on the 23rd to 29th April 2012 and it's a fun challenge for all knitting and crochet bloggers out there.

The way it works is simple: crafting bloggers from all over the world will write about set daily topics for 7 days in a row. The topics will be general pointers written by Eskimimi and each year there are really creative and imaginative responses to the topics. There is also a 'wildcard' topic that bloggers can substitute for one of the daily posts which they are having trouble with, or don't fancy. The really fun part is that a special set of tags are written so that they can be included in all the posts that are published over the course of blog week and means that people can Google search them once they know the tags.

This year there are also prizes and we have put a few up for grabs:

- A skein of handdyed Shiela's Sock for the photography category- A copy of Scrumptious Collection Volume 1 for the 'Wildcard' category

To find out more about how you can join in all of the fun please check out this post on Eskimimi's blog. Happy blogging!